Hi-Res Download News (HDTracks, ProStudioMasters, Pono, etc.) & Software/Mastering Part 12**

Just curious, what are the D-V releases that you consider to be poor-sounding?

 

Off the top of my head a couple of the Guess Who 2 fer's have 1 good sounding album & 1 bad sounding one. I'd have to pull them out and listen to remember what is what.

 

If you think this looks impressive, well, yes, you'd be correct. It is... Very nice!

 

Wasn't trying to show off. This is the only album I've went this far with. SACD, DVD-A, BD, the Mo-Fi, the Box, there's a couple more I could get as well.

 

It's still impressive... I can come close to this on a few Springsteen and Pink Floyd albums, but not quite as many variants.

 

Seems that it may be time to opt in again.

 

Ahhh, I was hoping for that. So that is better. Maybe 4 tracks more.....6. Now we have a 5.1 mix. Not that you can't make a nice surround mix with 8 tracks but more is better. Thicker.

I was hoping the studio had just moved ahead, bit the bullet and purchased a nice MM-1000 16. or maybe the defective MM-1000 24 track. I think 3M and Studer had a 16 track by this point. Some studios went straight from 4 track to 16 tracks in 1969. A few went from 8 to 16. Some went from 8 to 24 track. Problem was most studios purchased their 8 tracks between 1967 - 1968. The expensive of upgrading again just 1 ot 2 years later would not make economical sense. This is why there were so many 8 track records made right up until 1974.

I have a quote from the guy Uncle Jack used to work for in 1967.

".......4 tracks is all any studio needs.
1 track for the band. Track 2 for the orchestra or strings. Track 3 for vocals and Track 4 is an extra. More than enough.....And if you have no orchestra, horns/strings to record now you have 2 extra tracks. 8 tracks is a silly indulgence...No the studio does not NEED a Ampex 8 track. And less so a Scully 12 track. Complete waste of money......"

Uncle Jack spent most of November 1967 - January 1968 convincing his boss to buy a new 8 track. To no avail. Uncle left that studio in late 1968 to work for RCA. Apparently the guy finally purchased an 8 track in 1971! LOL

 

Compressed high definition files. What a disappointment.

 

It appears that the entire Universal batch out this week is bricked. I need to check a few more, but everyone I've looked at so far has been DR8-DR9.

 

The problem is DR8-9 is not considered "bricked" anymore.... in fact these are more dynamic than most new releases. Rather than "bricked" they are "updated to the new normal"...

 

Frighteningly, you're right.

Here's the DR's on the "new" Universals that most interested me (I'm not going to post this many read outs, but I promise they're real).

BTO Debut 9
Dan Hicks - Where's The Money (all acoustic!) 9
Joan Baez Gulf Winds 9
Joan Baez Diamonds & Rust 11 (the only decent one in the bunch)
Joe Cocker (Self titled 1969) Thank goodness for AF's SACD 9
The Tubes Self Titled Debut 8
The Tubes Now 10

 

Ironically one to add that's the opposite of bricked:

Grover Washington Jr - Mr Magic DR15

 

What a shame.
I had my eye on the two Asia's and the two BTO's.
Do You happen to know the DR's of the two BTO's (no - I won't hold my breath for high numbers)?

 

Pretty sure Alpha was digital. No good reason for them up-sampling it.
The AF is probably the best we're going to get for that monstrosity of a recording.

 

Anyone heard the new Nazareth Razamanaz in 24/96, Hdtracks? Also Ike & Tina Turner River Deep ... ? There are a bunch of new ones from UME, Humble Pie, Procol Harum, The Tubes, Ohio Players ...

 

BTO Debut 9
Dan Hicks - Where's The Money (all acoustic!) 9
Joan Baez Gulf Winds 9
Joan Baez Diamonds & Rust 11 (the only decent one in the bunch)
Joe Cocker (Self titled 1969) Thank goodness for AF's SACD 9
The Tubes Self Titled Debut 8
The Tubes Now 10

 

The Nazareth 'Razamanaz' has a DR of 6
(5,6,6,5,5,6,6,5,5)

I shall pass on that.

 

Humble Pie DR7
Ike & Tina DR7

Already listed The Tubes twice.

The only other decent ones I've seen other than the Grover Washington are
Joan Baez Diamonds & Rust Dr11
Pat Travers Live DR10

I missed seeing Procol.

 

On a positive note, two of Neil's albums were made available for the first time in hi res this week, "Are You Passionate" and "Silver and Gold". Both sound wonderful, as pretty much all his archival releases do. It's a shame about the Universal reissues, but considering how they didn't care about safe storage of their master tapes I'm not surprised by the lack of quality on this recent batch they're selling as 'hi res'...

 

I'm still waiting for NY to remaster Landing On Water. I bought the 192 on NYA months ago (in fact it's why I subscribed). The Dr is 8. It's awful. The cd is DR13. Neil has admitted there was a screw up, but it's been months & hasn't been fixed.

I will admit that other than LOW, Neil's remastering tends to be excelent.

 

What DR did you get? I'd like to be specific if I write Neil, as we've corresponded several times.

 

Sorry, I just deleted my post saying the numbers were good, I was wrong. Was looking at the Are You Passionate DR by accident. Sorry! My LOW is the same as yours...

 

Would you be willing to send Neil a letter to the editor about it? If he hears from more people, maybe something will happen. Again, he agreed a couple months ago after I brought it to his attention that there is a problem

 

Yes, I'll send him a note from the archives site right now, that's a good idea.

 

Thank you!